With all due respect, the yelling was DEFINITELY intolerable…but it didn’t stop the humor.
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I think Archie was more overbearing and stubborn, as opposed to malicious.
Carroll O'Connor, being a wonderful actor. could play the role with layers and depth.
Ironically, I thought the show wasn't as good when Archie was more empathetic and tolerant.
Archie was funniest when making observations based on his world view.
As an aside, I never found Mike to be likable.
His self-righteous pretenses were just as narrow-minded as Archie.
Plus he was freeloading on Archie, living on Archie's property, and
showed no respect and/or appreciation
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Yes, he really wasn’t malicious in his thinking most of the time. It was more of a case of being so stuck in his views and that unwillingness to see the other side of things. Ironically, these qualities still somehow made him likable.
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Apparently "All That Glitters", Lear's syndicated sitcom-soap that wasn't Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, is airing on some Italian streaming service once a week:
The channel that's uploading it so far has 14 episodes available - hopefully all 65 will get to air, but I guess it's a year if it keeps this pace. But certainly not something I thought we'd ever see! Linda Gray stars in it as Linda Murkland, a trans model. The whole idea is gender switching - ie women are in power positions like exec roles and males are stay-at-home dads.
The channel that's uploading it so far has 14 episodes available - hopefully all 65 will get to air, but I guess it's a year if it keeps this pace. But certainly not something I thought we'd ever see! Linda Gray stars in it as Linda Murkland, a trans model. The whole idea is gender switching - ie women are in power positions like exec roles and males are stay-at-home dads.
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Funny, the only thing I've ever remembered about ALL THAT GLITTERS was Linda Gray's shoulders -- who knew they would soon become such an important part of our lives??
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Sally Struthers has some things to say about Lear and her time on his most famous show. A get the feeling it should taken with a grain of salt.
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Sally was the weak link in the original quartet. She was lucky to be on that show. And she’s complaining that she didn’t get invited to Norman Lear’s house for dinner? I hope I’m not complaining publicly about thing like that when I’m in my late 70s.
Sally signed a deal with CBS in 1978 as she was finishing her contract, for a show that never materialized. She apparently was OK enough with Lear to sign to do the Gloria spinoff for his company in the early 80s.
She’s also criticizing Betty White for fat shaming her, yet in the same breath is praising Bea Arthur ”for trashing everyone we knew”.
Sally signed a deal with CBS in 1978 as she was finishing her contract, for a show that never materialized. She apparently was OK enough with Lear to sign to do the Gloria spinoff for his company in the early 80s.
She’s also criticizing Betty White for fat shaming her, yet in the same breath is praising Bea Arthur ”for trashing everyone we knew”.
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It's odd that she would come out now and make these statements after Lear and White are gone. Not a good look.
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White admitted that Bea Arthur (who called White "a c**t") didn't like her.
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Maybe Betty White had a dark side the public didn't see. Too bad she didn't have any children who could write a bitter memoir.
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It's self-evident that Struthers should have played Lucy's even-hungrier aunt:
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Well, I finally watched the first episode and I'll say I understand why this didn't take off. Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman had such clear vision from day one, this is sort of just hitting the same point with all the couples featured so far - the women work and are go-getters, the men don't work and are subservient. I hope it improves eventually but it feels very one note.
I'll continue to watch it since there's only 15 episodes (I think) available and they're being released once a week so it's not a big commitment. But yeah, I don't expect greatness from this one.
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- 9
Well, I've sort of been blazing through All That Glitters and I'm on episode 7. For those interested - Linda appears in every episode after episode 2 so far. And to be honest, hers is the only interesting storyline so far - a neurotic transsexual model who gets kidnapped by two hillbillies certainly makes for a good audition tape for Sue Ellen! You can tell why she was cast in Dallas from this.
Everything outside it seems to just walk in circles. Was this more interesting as a concept in 1977? Perhaps... but I'd think even people back then wanted something more than a simple gender switch.
Everything outside it seems to just walk in circles. Was this more interesting as a concept in 1977? Perhaps... but I'd think even people back then wanted something more than a simple gender switch.
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The death of Rob Reiner prompted me to revisit the first season of AITF. I admit, it's not a classic sitcom I watch much; other than a few random Xmas episodes, the first time in decades I've seen it. It's probably sitcom heresy, but I don't care much for Jean Stapleton's Edith. That singsong, shrill voice she used in character cuts right through my head.
So, it was a surprise to see how entirely different Edith was in the early episodes. The rattled sweetiepie Edith is nowhere to be seen; rather Stapleton played the part with a deeper voice and a languid weariness that seemed more appropriate to a stifled housewife married to Archie Bunker. I can guess why the characterization was changed. Downtrodden Edith made Archie look like a beast. Even Lear's groundbreaking attempts at realism had to confirm to sitcom standards -- even a dimwitted bigot had to be likeable. So, eternally chipper Edith was born to undercut the ugliness of Archie's character. I prefer Stapleton's original performance, but I suspect AITF wouldn't have clicked with audiences without making Edith so excessively loveable.
So, it was a surprise to see how entirely different Edith was in the early episodes. The rattled sweetiepie Edith is nowhere to be seen; rather Stapleton played the part with a deeper voice and a languid weariness that seemed more appropriate to a stifled housewife married to Archie Bunker. I can guess why the characterization was changed. Downtrodden Edith made Archie look like a beast. Even Lear's groundbreaking attempts at realism had to confirm to sitcom standards -- even a dimwitted bigot had to be likeable. So, eternally chipper Edith was born to undercut the ugliness of Archie's character. I prefer Stapleton's original performance, but I suspect AITF wouldn't have clicked with audiences without making Edith so excessively loveable.
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Well, it beats Rich Little's impersonation of her.
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I think Stapleton's take on Edith was to mirror the UK version of the character.. who was more weary and gave back to her husband as good as she got back.
I'll be honest that I didn't think Normal Lear and his shows were all that great. Just a lot of yelling and arguing all the time.
And in regards to AITF, I thought Meathead was just as a much of a closed minded idiot as Archie was..... and as it turns out, Archie evolves into a nicer guy while Meathead shows his true colors by ditching his wife and child. And Meathead was just as disrespectful and dismissive to Gloria as Archie was to Edith... but no one at the time really focused on that.
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But, as one who was around back then, they were soooooooooo important at the time, zeitgeistical entries which were very much of their time, especially AITF. But the early-'70s was an era where the TV sitcom genre became an agent of social change, as well as a barometer. Television grew up, in terms of subject matter, more in that five-year period than it ever had in any other five-year period, before or since.
That said, I've rarely sat thru AITF since the '70s (while, in contrast, I can veg out to MTM until I'm blue in the face, an obviously less-political show).
Naturally, I've said this all before.
And they were indeed shows about people screaming at each other.
Yes. The show seemed to eventually admit that Meathead was just as pigheaded and selfish as his father-in-law, and in some ways more so.